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Hundreds of Filipino domestic workers are flocking to their consulate here to rectify their status.
They are not part of the group of 2,000 Filipinos camped outside the consulate seeking emergency travel certificates to go home.
The women are working in the city and want to remain here. They are taking advantage of the grace period and labor concessions announced recently by the government.
There were long queues yesterday inside and outside the consulate, with workers holding their Philippine national identity cards and other documents in their hands. They were waiting to get their passports that had been handed over to the consulate by the Saudi authorities for renewal. The consulate workers have been working long hours to process the passports.
Philippine Consul General Uriel Norman Garibay told Arab News that the consulate was working long hours to process the passports. “The Philippine consulate is issuing on average 500 passports a day and staff members are working until midnight.” He said they only have three machines to process passports. Another one has been requested from Manila.